‘I can’t believe how fast 20 years went by…’, Kobe Bryant stated after his last professional game, which had music stars like Jay Z, Kanye West, The Weeknd and basketball stars, Shaquille O’Neal, Phil Jackson, Pau Gasol, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom and Magic Johnson in attendance.
Check out some facts about the basketball star:
He was born on August 23, 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
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He’s the son of Joe Bryant, a retired American professional basketball player and current coach of Los Angeles Lakers – the same club Kobe retired.
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He stands at 6 feet 6 inches tall {1.98 m} and weighing 205 pounds {93 kg}.
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In high school, Bryant was a member of a rap group called CHEIZAW.
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Kobe started his basketball career playing for his high school – Lower Merion High School – located in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.
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He was chosen as the 13th overall draft pick by the Charlotte Hornets in 1996
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Bryant joined L.A. Lakers after graduating from high school at the age of 17.
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He got engaged to Vanessa Laine in May 2000 after 6 months of dating, while she was still in high school.
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The couple married on April 18, 2001, at St. Edward Roman Catholic Church in Dana Point, California in the absence of his family and Lakers teammates because his parents opposed the unification.
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Bryant has two daughters {Natalia and Gianna} with wife, Vanessa.
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In 2003, the sheriff’s office of Eagle, Colorado, arrested the NBA star due to a sexual assault complaint filed by a 19-year-old hotel employee, which led to the termination of his endorsement contracts with McDonald’s and Nutella. The assault case was dropped by prosecutors after the accuser refused to testify in the trial in September 2004.
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In December 2011, Kobe Bryant’s wife filed for divorce, asking for joint custody of their 2 daughters.
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In January 2013, Vanessa dropped the divorce, according to TMZ who broke the news.
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Black Mamba as he’s also popularly called holds the record for most seasons with the same team after his 20th season with Lakers, before announcing retirement.
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Kobe won five championships with Lakers.
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At 19, he became the youngest All-Star in NBA history.
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In 2008, he was named NBA Most Valuable Player, leading his team to the NBA finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics.
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Bryant became the youngest player in NBA history to reach 30,000 career points at 34.
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In December 2014, he surpassed Michael Jordan on NBA all-time scoring list, coming third behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone.
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In 2014, Bryant also surpassed John Havlicek’s mark of 13,417 missed shots.
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He’s had long-term endorsements with brands including Adidas, Nike, Turkish Airlines, and Sprite.
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Bryant won two Olympic gold medals, participating in the Olympics for U.S team in 2008 and 2012.
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He made the NBA All-Star selections 17 times.
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Bryant played over 1,500 games in his NBA career.
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Staples Center also broke an industry merchandise record, having sold $1.2 million{over N238m} worth of Kobe Bryant’s merchandise, a single-day sales record for any arena in the world.